Cel Damage: Day Three

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New movies and an interview with the development team end this multiday party.

By IGN Staff

Welcome to the third and final day of our Cel Damage feature. We've shown you some of weapons you'll use in the game, as well as the six major characters you'll be able to play as. Now you'll get to meet the minds behind the cel, Pseudo Interactive. This is the company's first major game project, and we got the scoop on the ideas behind the team's fast-action car combat title from the President of the company, David Wu. Make sure to check out new movies of the game below as well, for an animated (no pun intended) look at your favorite Cel characters and weapons in action. Before we forget, make sure to check out:

IGN Xbox: You've named your game Cel Damage, so obviously it's a big part of the game. Was the idea actually inspired by the style, or did the Cel-shading come later in development?color>

David Wu: The "Cel style" was part of the initial vision statement. The design of the renderer, the physics, the animation and the design were all driven by common theme: To create a light hearted, over the top, totally fun action title in a Cel Universe.

IGN Xbox: What made Cel Damage a perfect pick for your first project?color>

David Wu: Being a new developer, we were working from a clean slate. Pseudo Interactive had the opportunity to create something totally innovative. Cel Damage is the result of our mission to create an experience that is totally different. A game with a unique, exaggerated personality, and gameplay that is so addictive and so gratifying that you can't put it down.

IGN Xbox: What was the inspiration for Cel Damage?color>

David Wu: Inspiration has come from two sources:

Pseudo Interactive: The passion of our team has been extremely inspiring. Everyone is so motivated, so driven to create the best possible game. Maybe it's the coffee.

Survival: We have had our ups and downs; Cel Damage will be our first title out of the door. Throughout Cel Damage I have had all of the inspiration that I can handle. In fact, I look forward to 100 hour work weeks.

IGN Xbox: What was your main for the game?color>

David Wu: Fast paced action, mixed with gratifying destruction and over the top chaos. It's fun, satisfying and addictive.

IGN Xbox: How would you say your game competes with titles like Sony's Twisted Metal Black in terms of car combat, and how is it different?color>

David Wu: I should point out that Twisted Metal is a great game. I don't see it as competition. That said, the attitude of Cel Damage is completely different from that of Twisted Metal Black. We don't take ourselves too seriously. Cel Damage is fast paced, light hearted and humorous. In Cel Damage you go around smashing your opponents with giant hammers, and slicing them in half with axes. In Twisted metal you are gunning your opponents for extended periods of time with an urban warfare arsenal. Cel Damage has three different game play modes. Smack Attack, Flag Rally and Gate Relay. Smack is the most similar to Twisted Metal's game modes, the other modes are quite different.

IGN Xbox: Can you go a little more into the play modes you just mentioned?color>

David Wu: There are three modes in Cel Damage. They have all been devised to work well with the game mechanics that Cel Damage offers. Smack Attack is an opportunity to go on an all out rampage, to think only about destruction. You've got to destroy your opponents as quickly as possible with little concern for your own well-being. Flag Rally is a little more strategic, when you have no flags you are in pursuit of whomever has the most. When you've collected enough flags you are avoiding danger, doing whatever you can to survive long enough to make it to the winner circle. You are in complete defense mode. Gate Relay is all about speed and maneuvering. You can't slow down, you've got to take down your opponents to get ahead but your can't let them break your focus or knock you off course.

IGN Xbox: Was it always the plan to include frag-counts in the game, and how did you go about making that sort of system car-combat friendly?color>

David Wu: As you seem to have guessed, the frags were added later in development. To distinguish between kills and general destruction our currency is "Smacks" rather than frags. In Cel Damage there are so many gratifying ways to destroy, flatten, or torment your opponents, we felt that it was appropriate to award the player with different quantities of Smacks for these events.

IGN Xbox: How complex is the destruction in the game? Does it go as far as to allow you to destroy walls and other "permanent" parts of the environment?color>

David Wu: The engine can handle the destruction of anything, but for gameplay and performance reasons we limit it to secondary items.

IGN Xbox: How hard has it been to balance the huge number of weapons you have in the game?color>

David Wu: This has been an ongoing process, and it will continue until the day that we ship.

IGN Xbox: Has the point system been a big help in the balancing?color>

David Wu: The smack points have always been a last resort in terms of weapon balance. Our goal was to create weapons that are balanced from the point of view of someone playing the game without paying attention to their score. The score should reflect the gameplay; it should not be used as a mechanism to make weaker weapons seem good.

IGN Xbox: Do you feel twitch games have a place in the next-generation library? People seem to expect every game to be over 20 hours, nowadays.color>

David Wu: I strongly believe that "twitch games" will be around forever. People want quick impulsive, gratifying entertainment. Just outside of my office I can hear screaming, cheering and explosions -- some artists are playing four-player Smack mode. Cel Damage is a "party game" and that niche will have a place in every generation's library.

IGN Xbox: What are you thoughts about Xbox development and the hardware in general?color>

David Wu: The Xbox is incredible. That's all that there is to it. As Seamus put it, the technology is so great that we can put our efforts into gameplay.

IGN Xbox: How important was framerate for your ultimate goal? Did you ever have difficulties in development getting such a blistering framerate?color>

David Wu: Frame rate is critical to game play, that's all that there is to it. If you can't keep your frame rate up, the game plays worse, looks worse, controls worse and feels worse. We've spent a fair amount of time optimizing the engine; performance tuning is a battle that starts on day one and lasts until the day that you ship.

IGN Xbox: Is there anything gameplay-wise that will have to wait until Cel Damage 2 because of time constraints?color>

David Wu: I wouldn't be a developer if I said "No". A few features that might make it into a sequel include team play and online play. I would love to go on, but then I would have to kill you or more likely, the rest of my team would kill me - and then there would be no Cel Damage 2.

IGN Xbox: Did you ever have plans to put online functionality into Cel Damage?color>

David Wu: We did. But we feel Cel Damage has a great multiplayer component and is tremendous fun for up to four players, as evidenced by my team members!